Abstract

CORRAL CUARTAS, ÁLVARO. Darwin and the Impossibility of Final Causes in Biology. Acta biol.Colomb. [online]. 2009, vol.14, suppl.1, pp.95-110. ISSN 0120-548X.

Darwin’s theory of natural selection in The Origin of Species not only laid the fundamental elements for a persuasive explanation of biological facts (as the common origin of all living beings, the rich diversity of individuals and species and partially the transmission of hereditary characters), but rather it introduces new forms for doing philosophy. The theory of natural selection leaves no room for final explanations and causes in the natural sciences. Since Aristotle there are four types of causes: material, formal, efficient and final. The efficient cause is since the 17th century the established model of explanation in natural science. However the final cause type of explanation seems to be well rooted in the structure of our human understanding. As creative artists, as craft designers, as lawgivers in societies, human beings are fully conscious that complexity in organization requires previous intelligence. As free rational beings we tend to organize most of our actions as purposive in terms of selecting ends and means. As I will show we suppose wrongly by way of analogy that the explanation of complexity in nature likewise requires the presence and the action of an intelligent being. Kant in his Kritik der Urteilskraft defended that this model of explanation seems to be "unrejectable for human beings". With an analysis of contemporary research work done by Richard Dawkins and others on the evolution of eyes in nature, I will show that in 1859 Darwin´s theory of natural selection demolished this millenary way of thinking, in which final cause has a place for explanation in natural science.

Keywords : Aristotle; Darwin; Dawkins; evolution; eyes; final cause; Kant; natural selection theory; philosophy of biology; teleology vs teleonomy.

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